Released – Chapter 42

Kazuo told me to enjoy my last five days, and I just can’t. I drunkenly reported to Jiro and Sakai about our confrontation, but all we could do was shrug our shoulders and move on. There’s no time left to track him. No time to figure out their plans. Five days is at once the longest and the shortest of time periods. Before I know it, we’re saying goodbye to our apartment, to Nishikyō, to our continent, and flying halfway around the world before getting on a train and going straight out to the space elevator.

My life has become surreal and panic-inducing and exciting. My last journey on Earth is not at all how I thought it would be, and yet being back at the base and glimpsing the cliffs in the distance where I lived for several weeks is familiar. Really, I just want to curl up in a ball and go to sleep. I want to shut down. This is too much change.

Jiro and I split up for the ride up to orbit. He wants to be in the observation lounge, but I’m sure I’ll panic and completely lose my mind if I’m surrounded by that much blue sky. I tell him to go, and I sit with Beni and my aunts instead. Then a nurse comes by, sees my white knuckles, and offers me meds, and by gods, I take them. Everyone breathes a huge sigh of relief, too, I know it.

The only thing I regret is not seeing the look of joy on Jiro’s face as we ascend into orbit.

I’m happy I’ve taken the drugs. Once the elevator has come to a halt, and the shuttle is docked with us, I float from my spot, giddy and giggling at Beni whose hair surrounds her head like a halo. Tons of people have made this trip before me, and I’m sure I’m not the first nor last silly and drugged-up girl to be pushed along the corridor from the elevator to the shuttle. Zero gravity is a lot of fun, but I doubt I’ll remember much of it later. Everything is hazy and soft, and everyone is hilarious, but nothing in my brain is sticking permanently.

Once we’re aboard the shuttle, Jiro is seated back next to me, and I grin at him like a lunatic.

“You took the meds?” he asks with a smile.

“Yes. I’m much happier now.” I pat his hand a few times and promptly pass out.

—-

I’m woken up at spacedock and feel marginally less drugged, but still very calm, sleepy, and complacent, which is the whole reason why they gave me the drugs in the first place. Now that everything is no longer hilarious, I can’t believe how much of a bother zero gravity is. There’s no up or down. Everyone is floating, and I’m disoriented. I heard a woman about twenty people behind me panicking five minutes ago. Her voice got progressively higher and higher and higher, and then she was silent. They probably forced the meds on her and good for them. If it were my job to deal with panicking people, I would want them all drugged too.

I am the only one in our party that took them. We wait in line, each of us strapped to the wall in this corridor, and I push to the length of my strap so I can look down the hall at all of my family and friends. Miko is a little green, but she smiles at me when I smile at her. Her parents behind her are bored. Everyone else is doing well, even Aunt Kimie and Lomo. They both take Aunt Lomo’s hair out of her clips and play with it. They’re funny, those two.

“You seem really happy,” Jiro says, poking me in the ribs.

“I am,” I say, giving him an exaggerated wink and some finger guns. He lets out a laugh, and Sakai glances over at me with a smile. “Though the bureaucracy is a little tiring, no?”

“I hate waiting in line. Even in space.” He sighs before grabbing my hand and squeezing.

The admitting doctors can only take six people at a time so we wait. Eventually, I’m unstrapped from the wall by an assistant, pulled into a small room, and strapped to the wall again so I don’t float away. A young female doctor scans my hand and types into her tablet.

“Okay, Ms. Itami. Your birth control implant has been deactivated and won’t be reactivated until you’re awake. Of course, this doesn’t mean you are immediately ripe for impregnation, but still, sexual intercourse on the ship and before hibernation is strictly prohibited.”

Damn.

“If you’ve had sex in the last twenty-four hours, please indicate so right now.”

“I have.”

“Then we will give you an extra spermicide as a precaution. The hibernation drugs will pick up where the birth control implant left off but the twelve-hour fasting period before hibernation gives some doctors pause. The spermicide is not necessary, but it’s also very important that no one becomes pregnant on the flight. Now, looking over your records from your Nishikyō doctor, everything else is in order. You took the meds on the way up?”

“I did indeed,” I say with a wide smile, and she smiles back.

“You did indeed. They’ll wear off soon. From here, you’ll be shuttled to your ship with the rest of your hibernation class. You’ll be given a tour, meet the crew, put in flight jump suits, and then hooked up to an IV for nutrition to begin your twelve-hour fast. You are to empty your bladder and bowels as many times as possible, but in general, you won’t do much during the twelve hours. Rest, visit with your friends and family, look out the window, read, and try to relax. When the fast is over, we’ll get you in your hibernation suit, and you can work with your hibernation techs on who goes to sleep first. It’s different for every class.”

“And then?”

“You go to sleep, and we’ll see you in seven point four-five years.”

Seven point four-five years.

I’m glad I’m on the meds because I smile and nod and move out into the back hall with everyone else without breaking into tears.

We’re all loaded into another shuttle with no windows. Only about ten minutes pass before the doors open again, and we’re at the ship. I didn’t even know we were moving. I like that they kept the stars and open space hidden for these transitions. I would’ve been overwhelmed by it.

Once we’re off the shuttle and floating into the ship, I feel a little more like myself and, thankfully, less anxious. The process has been going smoothly, and I’m not as worried anymore. Our class is greeted by a young Japanese man with a military-style buzz cut and wearing a flight suit.

“Hello and welcome aboard The Murasaki. Your home for the next seven and a half years asleep. I am Flight Supervisor Hoshi Endo, and I will be your flight class coordinator.”

I am secretly pleased our ship is named after the author of The Tales of Genji. I love that book.

Behind Hoshi Endo, the corridor is bright white and simple. All the metal we salvaged from Earth was hauled up here to make these ships, and seeing it now, I’m impressed. Everything looks brand-new and not the least bit recycled. The whole ship is not metal, of course. I didn’t babysit all of those composite labs for nothing. I know the windows are made of super strong transparent composite material we developed a few years ago.

“Your tour before fasting will be short, but you’ll be guided through the main areas. We’ll float past the flight deck where you can meet the first-leg Captain. There are eight crews for this flight that will rotate in and out of hibernation. We do this to conserve resources and to make it fair for the crews who still want to see their families again someday. Hibernation technicians operate on a one-year rotation as well but they are woken up twice during the trip and hence there are only four crews.”

I’m fascinated by all the information coming at me, and my eyes are locked on Hoshi as he gives his prepared speech. I’m glad to hear the Committee thought about the crews’ families.

“After the flight deck, we’ll float past the short-stay quarters, then the crew quarters, and then the multi-purpose room which is where you will spend the majority of your time here. Tours of the engine room are not provided, sorry. Please don’t ask for one. Crews are triple-checking the hyperdrives and calculations and cannot be disturbed. I can tell you we’re expecting the trip to take a little less than seven and a half years, and approximately thirty individual jumps with downtime in between.”

We didn’t see the ship from the outside, but I get the impression it’s huge. Corridors stretch down into pinpoints, and we pass doors upon doors upon doors. We float through at least five airlocks, pushing off from walls and climbing along hand-over-hand. Jiro is absolutely tickled the entire time, and I can’t help but smile at him especially with his long hair floating around his head.

After our tour of the flight deck which is a room filled with panels and buttons, we float past the quarters Hoshi Endo spoke about.

“Here are the short-stay quarters where you will bunk after the trip is over and before you are moved planet-side. Our hibernation technicians will also live here during the flight. The next corridor contains all of the crew quarters… And here is the multi-purpose room.”

In the large multi-purpose room, opposite the door, is the biggest window I’ve seen yet, and it provides us with a breathtaking view. We’re in orbit over Earth. I knew this, of course, but seeing it with my own eyes is just…

“Amazing.” Jiro grabs my hand, and we shoot past everyone else straight for the window. Pressed against the limitless vacuum of space, I feel like I’m falling for a moment, so I close my eyes and take a deep breath before opening them again.

Earth is still beautiful in spite of everything we’ve done to it. The globe below is steeped in brown and beige, with pockets of tea-colored ocean left in several places. Searching the surface, I spot oases on the mainland and a few of the radioactive fossilized forests. I wonder what future humans will think of Earth if they ever come back here.

Hoshi comes up next to us. “We’re pretty far north, and when we hit the dark side, you can see Nishikyō off in the distance.” He smiles at us. “It’s been a while since I was there.”

“It’s still the same,” I say. “I think it always will be.”

Jiro pulls me into a hug, and I look up at his face watching the world turn underneath us.

You’re right, Jiro. It is amazing.